To be humble is to not think that you are better than other people. Humility is the quality of a humble person. To be proud is the opposite. The title is a joke with a serious point: can a person be proud because he is so humble?
What is this page about?
Perhaps you know this voice. A ministry sends a letter, or someone preaches a sermon, or a yearly report arrives. It says, honestly, that the ministry is small, unworthy and humble. Then it tells you that God chose this ministry. God speaks to it directly. God has used it in a very great way. And it is different from other Christians, who are “dead” or “not faithful”.
Here are three sentences of this kind:
- “We have no pride at all.”
- “God chose our small, unimportant flock to do great things.”
- “Dead religious traditions cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit.”
Ministry
A group of Christians who do a work for God together. For example, they preach, or they run a hospital, or they send missionaries.
The sentences on this page were collected over many years. They are not exact words, and they are not connected to any church or person. The point is the pattern. It is not the speaker.
The first view: point to God
Tell what God did, so that people see God.It is good to report what God has done. The Bible does it. But in such a report, God is the one who acts in the sentences. We leave it to other people to notice if we are humble. We do not need other Christians as a dark background. And the hearers go away praising God. This page agrees with this view.
The second view: say it plainly
Say openly how God is using us, and why we are different.The people who support a ministry should know everything that God is doing. When we call the ministry humble and led by the Spirit, we only describe it honestly. And when we say “God directed us”, we give him the credit. People who speak in this way usually mean every word. This page tests this view.
What this page does not do
It does not judge anyone’s heart. It tests sentences, not people. It does not say that ministries who talk in this way do no good. Many do a lot of good. It does not describe any real church or ministry.
The short answer
- Look for the word “but”. “We are nothing. Christ is everything. But Christ has used us in a very great way.” The part after “but” is the reason for the sentence. The humble part in front makes it hard to question the big claim.
- A boast does not become humble because we thank God for it. Jesus told a story about a proud Pharisee. The Pharisee began his prayer with thanks: “God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men” (Luke 18:11). And Paul asks: “if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) If it was a gift, there is nothing to boast about.
- “Humble” is a word that other people use about you. “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth” (Proverbs 27:2). When you tell people that you are humble, your own words cancel the claim.
- “God told us” can stop people from disagreeing. The apostles had to make their biggest decision. Afterwards they wrote: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us” (Acts 15:28). Compare this: “Our orders come directly from God.” After that, nobody can question any decision.
- Small words can carry big claims. See Part 3.
- It is fine to report results, if God is the one who acts in the sentences. See Part 4.
- If your humility needs a worse person next to you, it is not humility. The Pharisee needed the tax collector at the back of the temple. When we call other Christians “dead”, we do the same thing.
- The old writers saw all of this. See Part 2.
Pharisee
A member of a strict Jewish religious group in the time of Jesus. In the story in Luke 18, a Pharisee and a tax collector both pray. The Pharisee thanks God that he is better than other men. The tax collector only asks God for mercy.
After people hear your report, whom do they praise? If they praise God, it was a true report about God. If they praise you, it was something else. This is so even if God’s name was in every sentence.
This is my opinion. Most people who talk in this way are not false people. They love the work, and they want God to have the credit. But a person can learn the language of humility as he learns any language. He can speak it very well while his mind moves back to himself. I have caught myself doing it. The answer is not to stop talking about what God has done. The answer is to tell it so plainly that people forget who told it.
Glory given, or glory kept?
Here are ten sentences. After each one, ask: am I now thinking about God, or about the ministry? This page gives its own reading of each.
- “We have no pride at all. We serve only in humility.” Glory kept. Nobody can truly say that he has no pride, just as nobody can say that he has no sin (1 John 1:8). The sentence claims a very unusual goodness.
- “God gave us clear advice and accurate guidance.” It depends. It is normal to thank God for guidance. But the word “accurate” is a mark that we give to our own listening. It can make our decisions sound like something nobody may question.
- “God chose our small, unimportant flock to do great things.” Glory kept. Take out “small, unimportant”. Now it says: God chose us for great things.
- “People still write to us to say how thankful they are.” It depends. It can be innocent. It can also be a way to praise ourselves in another person’s voice. When crowds tried to honour Paul and Barnabas, the two men refused it (Acts 14:14-15).
- “We serve humbly. We give up much. We do not think of ourselves.” Glory kept. Other people notice these good things in us. When we say them about ourselves, they become self-praise.
- “Our missionary gifts have changed things for ever.” Glory kept. Only God can say what will last for ever, and he will say it on the last day. Paul wrote: “judge nothing before the time” (1 Corinthians 4:5). Paul would not even judge his own work.
- “We cared for every person in need, 31,275 sick people, in Christ’s love.” Glory kept. It gives an exact count of our own work. It makes a claim that nobody can make (“every”). And it tells how loving we were.
- “God lets us represent him, but only in a very small way.” It depends. Every Christian represents Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). If we say it as something that all Christians share, it is simply true. If we say it to show that we are special, we claim for ourselves what belongs to everyone.
- “Christians with old forms of worship cannot do this through their ceremonies.” Glory kept. It needs other Christians as the dark background. Paul asks: “Who are you who judge another’s servant?” (Romans 14:4)
- “Christ has changed us so completely that we cannot go back to the life of the world.” It depends. It is precious to tell what God’s grace has done. But Paul said that Christ came to save sinners, “of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). He said “I am”, not “I was”. “We cannot go back” speaks about a work that is finished.
What did the old writers say?
This is not a modern problem. Christians have written some very sharp things about pride that has learned to sound humble.
Pride lurks even in good works in order to destroy them.
Augustine, about 397
In simple words: Pride hides even inside good works, and it waits there to destroy them.
We are very apt to speak of ourselves as nought, as weakness itself, as the offscouring of the earth; but we should be very much vexed to be taken at our word …
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, 1609
In simple words: We often say that we are nothing, that we are very weak, that we are the dirt of the earth. But we would be very angry if someone believed us.
Some, who think themselves quite emptied of themselves … are full as they can hold with the glory of their own humility.
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, 1746
In simple words: Some people think that they are completely empty of self. But they are as full as they can be, and what fills them is pride in their own humility.
C. S. Lewis wrote a book of letters from an old devil to a young devil. The old devil explains how to spoil a man’s humility. Make the man notice it. Let him think, “I am being humble!” Then, almost at once, there will be
pride — pride at his own humility
C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942
In simple words: pride, and it is pride because he is so humble
Edwards also said that the truly humble person “never thinks his humility great”.
“But Paul boasts!”
Someone may fairly say this. Paul does boast, one time, for a long time, in 2 Corinthians 11-12.
But look at how he does it. He calls it foolish. He says that the church forced him to do it. He lists the times he was beaten and the times his ship was wrecked. He does not list his successes. And he stops, so that nobody will think he is greater than he is (2 Corinthians 12:6).
This is the opposite of the pattern. The pattern says “we are humble” and then lists successes. Paul says “I am a fool to speak like this” and then lists failures.
When you tell people about your own humility, it has already become something else.
Take out the humble words
Here is a simple test. Find the modest words in the sentence. Cross them out. Read what is left.
| The sentence | What is left |
|---|---|
| God chose our small, unimportant flock to do great things. | God chose our flock to do great things. |
| We are nothing. Christ is everything. But Christ has used us in a very great way. | Christ has used us in a very great way. |
| God lets us represent him, but only in a very small way. | God lets us represent him. |
The first sentence uses the words “little flock”. But Jesus used that name for all his disciples: “Don’t be afraid, little flock” (Luke 12:32). It is not a name for one special group.
The last sentence is true of every Christian. So it is a boast only if we say it to show that we are different.
Paul wrote one sentence with the same shape. Compare it:
I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10 · World English Bible
In simple words: I worked harder than all of them. But it was not really I. It was the grace of God that was with me.
Paul’s sentence turns back to God’s grace at the end. The sentences in the pattern turn back to us.
A report about God, or an advertisement?
Nothing here means that a ministry should be silent about what God has done. This is how a report by the apostles sounds:
they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the nations.
Acts 14:27 · World English Bible
In simple words: They told everything that God had done with them. They told how God had opened a door, so that people of other nations could believe.
Who acts in both halves of that sentence? God. And when another report was heard in Jerusalem, the hearers praised God (Acts 21:20).
Once the disciples came back to Jesus, excited about their results. He turned their joy to another place:
don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Luke 10:20 · World English Bible
In simple words: Do not be glad because the spirits obey you. Be glad because your names are written in heaven.
Now compare a sentence from a report.
“By God’s grace, our small team reached 214 villages. No other ministry had ever entered these villages.”
God is named. But who acts in the sentence? “Our small team”. And the other ministries are there to make us look good.
Here are three quick tests for any report, sermon or letter.
- Who acts in the sentences? God, or we?
- Does it name any of our own good qualities? “Humble”, “unselfish”, “hard-working”: those are words for other people to say.
- Are other Christians there only to make us look better? If so, it is the Pharisee’s prayer.
You can also try this with a paragraph that you wrote about your own church. Count how often you speak about yourselves. Count how often you speak about God. Count the humble words, the big words, and the words that compare you with others. A count is not a judgment. But the numbers often surprise people.
A warning to ourselves
It is easy to read this page and pray, “God, I thank you that I am not like those ministries.” That is the Pharisee’s prayer again. It only points the other way. In the story Jesus told, there is one safe place. It is at the back, with the man who said: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
- Pride can speak in humble words. Look at what comes after “but”.
- Thanking God does not make a boast humble.
- “Humble” is a word for other people to say about us.
- In a true report, God is the one who acts, and the hearers praise God.
- Do not use other Christians as a dark background.
Check it yourself
Here are six things. The first three take one evening together. The last one takes no time at all.
- Read Luke 18:9-14 and Matthew 6:1-4. Five minutes. The Pharisee and the tax collector, and doing good in secret.
- Read 1 Corinthians 3-4. Fifteen minutes. “What do you have that you didn’t receive?”
- Read Francis de Sales, *Introduction to the Devout Life*, Part 3, chapter 5. Fifteen minutes, free online. It is the best short description of pride that sounds humble. The English is old.
- Read Acts 14:21-28 and Luke 10:17-20. Ten minutes. How the apostles reported results, and what Jesus said when his disciples did.
- Read C. S. Lewis, *Mere Christianity*, Book 3, chapter 8, “The Great Sin”. Fifteen minutes.
- Tell it the other way. Do this one. The next time you tell someone what God has done through you, let God be the one who acts in every sentence. Name none of your own good qualities. Stop before the “but”. Then notice whom the person praises.
The Bible words on this page come from the World English Bible. It is a modern translation, and anyone may copy it. The quick version and the full dossier use the King James Version, which is older and harder to read. The words are different, but the meaning is the same.
Want to read more?
The quick version says the same things in ordinary English and adds short exercises. The full dossier gives all the evidence and names every source.
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